Arranged Marriages – a (very) long Post on

December 3, 2008

Arranged marriages, even though they seem to us like a concept from the Dark Age, are very much in. But of course, there are different types of arranged marriages.

The hardcore ones happen in rural areas. The older women on the boy’s side send the word that they are looking for a bride. Send the word is too strong an expression: they whisper about it in their closed quarters, and it spreads like wildfire. Within 12 minutes, all the villages in the district know. When the women hear about a suitable girl, the first thing they do (after checking her family’s assets and the dowry they can expect, let’s not forget we are talking business here) is matching the horoscopes. If the horoscopes match, then they’ll go check her out themselves. The bride-viewing trip to the girl’s village usually involves two dozen people squeezed in an old jeep, a round of tea, biscuits offered by the girl at whom the boy will try not to stare. However, since she’ll be around for about 14 seconds, he’d better try and get a glimpse. Not that anyone will ask his opinion. The families will talk, they will agree on a dowry (usually, in villages, a gold necklace and some cash) and next time the girl will see the boy will be on their wedding day. Sometimes there is no bride-viewing for the boy, just a picture.

In the cities, it is slightly more relaxed. The women organize for the girl to come over for tea with her family. The boy and the girl meet, they are told to go for coffee together and to come back in an hour. The boy takes the girl to an expensive place he will never take her again once they are married, they have coffee, they talk about movies. They come back, they’re smitten. The families agree on a “gesture” (a fridge, a scooter, a car, some cash, depending on the income bracket), a date is set by the astrologer. There are different versions of the urban arranged wedding: sometimes the boy and the girl go for coffee two or three times before giving an answer. But never more than three times, this would damage the girl’s reputation.

It’s all fun and I often tease my friends who got an arranged marriage. But it can be an excruciating process. A friend of mine got rejected three times by guys she went for coffee with. She was crushed and she told her parents that that was it. She’d find her husband herself, but there was no more “going for coffee”. She did find an amazing guy and they are now blissfully married.

Love marriages are just as many as arranged marriages. Sometimes they go smoothly, both families being relaxed and not minding inter-casting. A friend of mine from Pondicherry fell in love with a guy from Jaipur. They dated and when they decided to get married, the boy’s family asked about her background. “So, she told me, I went to my father and I asked him: Papa, by the way, what caste are we? He had no idea. So he asked his mother, who figured out something. It seemed to please the family alright, and we got married.”

Another friend of mine had a thougher experience. He is a Brahmin boy from Uttar Pradesh (which would make his parents very strict on caste). While he was in college in Pune, he fell in love with a nice Maharashtrian girl. They dated, and when it became obvious they were going to spend their lives together, they told their parents. Her parents were cool, his went totally frantic. For three years they wouldn’t even consider it. He was adamant he wasn’t marrying anyone else. But is was a tiring and hurtful fight, and he got scared she would just give up and leave. He decided to elope with her. But his father got wind of it and, somehow, finally gave in. They got married, and they are just the most adorable couple!

I really think there is no rule about marriages in India. Arranged marriages do work, because they look at marriage as what is has been for centuries: a practical venture. We started putting feelings in the marriage concept in the fifties and we now cry in dismay at the divorce rates. I also think that parents often know what is best for their children.

So, to finish this horribly long post, let’s say there is no rule. India is a country where shaadi.com and speed-dating, bride-viewing and teen sex all coexist.